Food and Nutrition Assistance Research Database

The RIDGE Program summarizes research findings of projects that were awarded 1-year grants through its partner institutions. All projects were conducted under research grants from ERS, and the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of ERS or USDA. For more information about publications or other project outputs for a specific RIDGE study, contact the investigator or research center that awarded the grant. For a customized list of RIDGE projects and summaries, search by keyword(s), project, research center, investigator, or year:

Project:The Consequences of Food Insecurity for Child Well-Being: An Analysis of Children’s School Achievement, Psychological Well-Being, and Health

Year: 1999

Research Center: Joint Center for Poverty Research, University of Chicago and Northwestern University

The effect of food insecurity on child well-being has
been the subject of much research in developing countries.
With a few exceptions, research on food insecurity
in the United States has focused on examining the
causes of food insecurity, potential solutions, and,
more recently, on assessing the incidence of food insecurity.
Very little research has attempted to analyze
the effect of food insecurity on child well-being in the
United States. Reid uses the 1997 Child Development
Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to
examine the effects of food insecurity on school
achievement, psychological well-being, and health of
children.

The analyses provide evidence that food insecurity
affects a child’s school achievement and psychological
well-being. They do not support a hypothesized negative
impact of food insecurity on child health. Using
children’s assessment scores for the letter-word, application,
passage comprehension, and calculation subtests
of the Woodcock Johnson test as measures for
school achievement, Reid finds that food insecurity
depresses children’s scores on the letter-word, passage
comprehension, and calculation subtests. Similarly,
using indices of external and internal behavior problems
as measures of psychological well-being, her
results show food insecurity increases the numbers of
both external and internal behavior problems among
children. However, Reid finds no effect of food insecurity
on child health when measured by indicators of
low height-for-age and low weight-for-age.